Supercast: a multi-sensory experience

At Assemble Papers we look at the culture of living closer together, and how we can do that better. We are often asking what impact these environments have on things like our relationships, access to housing, and life opportunities. Most of those discussions have focused on visual and relational realms of perception. Until now.

Over the past few months we have been working with RMIT Design Hub to bring you Supercast, a podcast that explores the sensory and embodied experiences of the built and unbuilt environment. Sight is the most privileged sense when we think of cities and landscapes – but how do we listen and embody these spaces? How does architecture feel, how does it impact our bodies? Who is it designed for and who isn’t there? What does Antarctica, or Melbourne, sound like? How do you design for sound: from concert halls to the local pub? Does silence exist?

Season 1 of Supercast is titled ‘Super Field’, and comprises four episodes (Listening, Noise, Wilderness and Obstacles), which will drop throughout May 2018. “It’s a collaborative endeavour, so it’s super in that sense: it’s a super field, it’s super in terms of the territories that we’re trying to represent, it’s larger than we could achieve as artists,” says collaborator Philip Samartzis.

Supercast presents no demagogues, no singular voice of authority, but rather, a chorus and cacophony of sounds: a collective and intimate portrait of the contemporary world we inhabit. We take ‘super’ to represent: a generous and expanded field of perception.

Supercast is a podcast by Assemble Papers x RMIT Design Hub, produced by Bec Fary.

Supercast is produced in Melbourne, Australia, also known as Naarm, the land of the Wurundjeri and Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We acknowledge the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the traditional custodians of the lands across Australia where this podcast was recorded. We pay respect to their Elders past and present, and recognise Australian Aboriginal culture as one of the world’s oldest storytelling traditions.

[Main image by Philip Samartzis]